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Spring has sprung! Well, officially not yet, but my tulips, garlic, catnip (that somehow lasted all winter), and daffodils have sprung! I, too, am feeling a sense of refreshed motivation to take on the world and inspire my students!I am fully aware this may be from my new organic espresso or my spinach protein shake, however, I attribute it in part to the sun, and the lovely green I am beginning to see in my garden!

The thought of the sun actually existing in the sky (in Upstate NY) really motivates me to tackle so much, including re-vamping this old blog! Of course, it will continue to be coffee-fueled, minus the Thesis updates! Although, I have a lot of research ideas (and multiple have-started articles) so there might be some new musings about that in this revived blog, too. Although I’m not sure which direction I will take this blog in 2016, I just know I love to write, so we’ll see how the blog transforms in the next few months. Enjoy the journey with me!

Back to my garden… I have just started, in between grading midterms, plotting how I will organize my plants and expand my garden this season. I do this annually using colored pencils, which makes the planning so much more exciting. You can say it’s my version of the coloring for adults fad going on right now, which is great, don’t get me wrong, just very pricy considering the costs of children’s coloring books are less than half. It’s a good fad to pick up, as it truly can help limit stress and keep areas of the brain that may have become dormant, more active.

I’ve been using colored pencils, pens, and crayons since my major sTBI back in ’07 to help me organize and to keep my amygdala in check (stress-reduction). I find that planning your garden with color is more cognitively stimulating than simply coloring in the lines of a pre-created image. You activate much more of your cerebral cortex by creating your own canvas (garden), organizing by length and width (to account for each plants’ necessity), and finally, in drawing the “full-in-bloom” version of your Spring 2016 Dream Garden.

Now, I’m no Neurologist, but I feel like I know a thing or two about stress and anxiety. (Just read any posting while I was completing grad school and my Masters Thesis and you’ll see! 😛 ) When I brought up the idea last year to my neurologist of plotting my garden like this, making time each day to work in it, and update the drawings, he was impressed with my rationale for doing this as an alternative to staying on meds to reduce stress. Plus, the extra o^2 from the plants can’t hurt! He might have just been humoring me, but hey, I’m definitely less stressed a year later. And, thanks to my indoor plant/planning during the winter, still no daily rx… I might be onto something! 🙂 Continue reading →

I’m back at it after what seemed like a roller coaster of 2 years of ineffective writing, organization, and unrealistic goals. My emotions were too deeply involved in this paper after my grandfather passed away in 2012, who always would tell me “Get all the education you can, no one can ever take that away from you, Chyna!” Now, this paper shouldn’t take more than 2 months to complete (theoretically anyway) since I’ve written one that had been deemed ‘graduate level work’ in undergrad. But here I am. Thesis not complete – STILL!

Instead of beating myself up like I have been in the past, I’m taking a more active approach, looking for inspirations, and just getting this thing done!! I am finished dealing with the emotional roller coaster I let thesis become from 2012 – 2013. No more deep insights followed by moments of ecstasy, which initiated moments of despair that led to apathy. Pretty crazy stuff it was. Once I was able to look at this from an outsiders perspective I realized this toxic cycle was enough for me. December 2013 brought this on, not sure why, I just thank God! Now, I have a clear plan, a realistic timeline, and a great support system of family, friends, advisors, and a great motivational music compilation to keep me going – and plans to prevent this cycle from repeating again. Lil Wayne’s Tie My Hands was inspiration while I wrote my UG thesis – and so again, I revert to it to keep me going! Blog posts will follow more regularly again regarding the usual – thesis, football, life, kittens, insightful lists of random things, you know, a few of my favorite things!

I end this quote-post with the promise, and hope of good things to come beginning this month! Also, for the record, I’m betting on the Saints (underdogs come through when it’s down to the wire like this!), the Luck-y Colts, the 9ers, and the Broncos for this weekend’s Playoff wins. Some of these are more hopeful than realistic, but I’ve been 2/3 so far – and I think my odds are due to improve!

What has this month/new year made anyone else realize or inspire to accomplish?!

“Yes I know, the process is so much stress, but it’s the progress that feels the best!” -Lil Wayne, Tie My Hands from Tha Carder III

That’s right, I am going to share this essential key, per gratis, because I think it’s so essential to all young professionals (definingyoung is up for your own interpretation), and the best part, you probably already have all the resources you need to incorporate this into your daily, weekly, and/or monthly life!

The essential piece to add to your life to develop a successful, challenging, enjoyable, and fulfilled life and career is… LEGEN… wait for it… DARY! LEGENDARY! Okay, that’s not it but I couldn’t help but using it after watching re-runs of How I Met Your Mother as a reward for 3 hours of thesis work… I digress… but this key is so legendarily simple…

The key is to find and add an active MENTOR to your life.

Just in the past weekend alone it became clear to me the amazing benefits of the many fantastic mentors I have/have had in my life, all of which have positively contributed to my progression since my youth.

Later in the week I will have a follow-up post with a formula for finding a perfect mentor for whichever chapter of your life you may be in right now … check back soon!

What a weekend I had at STC Rochester’s 2013 Summit! Not only was I, as always, greatly inspired by my phenomenal mentor, Ben Woelk, but also, I was inspired by other great professionals in Tech Comm who opened up my mind to new ways of thinking about all things writing. The conference was so inspiring, I can’t keep all of the inspiration and life-direction advice to myself… so I’m sharing it here. Enjoy!

…Inspiration comes from insightful, and passion-driven experiences…

Working in the non-profit world is perfect for some individuals but there are definitely high burn-out rates (see Justin Ewer’s article in the US News). I love it, but do experience burn-out easily, so I have taken steps into looking into jobs in different directions, including going back to the world of Higher Ed. after some great advice from the conference attendee’s who know first hand what I was experiencing!

What I learned from the conference is to be conscientious and careful of the possibly downward spiral associated with high-stress positions trying to “help people”. They are great in theory, but if you don’t have the right fit you most likely will damage your strong-will and desire to change the status quo and could potentially experience the feeling of dissatisfaction after realizing you have not solved any societal problems… so pick your organization wisely!

How? Simple primary research! Go on informational interviews, connect with people who used to work there, and find out if the office environment is one in which you can make a difference. Nonprofit it still where I see myself working long-term but I am taking this advice to heart based on the experience’s of successful professionals who have been there! Thanks, especially to Ben, Anna, and Bernard!

Experience is a MUST! This one may seem obvious, but the type of experience you get makes a world of difference. Take for instance, volunteer work – it can be so beneficial to an organization and your brand… if the work you produce is tangible, quantitative, and effective. If you are just filling in for others who are not doing their job, the organization is the only entity benefiting. Great for them, especially if they are a nonprofit, but not good for the one putting in endless hours of extra work that take away from producing tangible, useful portfolio work.

In order to make your volunteer, or non-paid, work beneficial to you and the organization, some steps to take include a simple one – mapping out where you start when you begin the position, and showing where you plan to end. In this way, you can track your progress in fulfilling the organization’s mission and improving on some aspect of their outreach, communication, technical progress, etc.

Also, be sure to track everything you do. Before you do anything, ask yourself, how will this be of benefit to the organization and how can I best utilize all that I know to make a quantifiable lasting impression? (or something of that nature to give your work all you can, and to measure your success for future positions… and for the organization).

This one comes straight from the fantastic presentation by Lori Meyer, The Change Agent in You! Without giving away all the great tips from this presentation, I will focus on a major point she made that really hit home with me. Lori suggested that we always be sure to “take inventory of skills you possess” which can serve as a beneficial tool during interviews and also as a “roadmap” to match yourself up with the job you want to get.

I took that personally as great advice to validate my present position in my working life, and also my direction in life. While I was volunteering for many great causes and working on my masters thesis, it hit me that I was not utilizing my skills to their fullest extent in either of these areas as I was stretching my time too thin. After reflection on Lori’s presentation, I realized that to reach the point in my life/work life that I hoped to in 5 years, I currently had to withdraw some of my time out of volunteer positions and focus them better. After just a week and a half, I have noticed I am more successful in my everyday endeavors and go to sleep at night feeling more successful!

Try it – take an inventory of your current and future desired skills… then thank Lori for the great tips!

Ben, in his lightning talk, offered some fantastic tips on information security. While dodging the “distraction balls”, he pointed out the threat of posting on Facebook, and other Social Networking sites, that you are out-of-town to a broad audience of people. Knowing you are gone, and for how long, any burgular could easily break into your house, knowing the time-frame they could have before your return. Scary! But true… be careful!

I used to be an avid user of Foursquare, which considering I am his mentee, seems counterintuitive… But, I am proud to say that I have now limited my use of Foursquare to only posting to my limited “friends” on Foursquare, and not to my private Facebook, and public Twitter accounts. Progress! 🙂

Marilyn gave a fantastic talk about Getting, Keeping, and Excelling at a Job. Not only is this very relevant for me, a soon-to-be recent graduate, but in today’s economy, her speech is beneficial to everyone! She touched on topics of personal branding – ensure you establish your personal brand as an individual that is not easily replaced – interviewing tips – from the initial hand-shake to the follow-up email – and so much more! Catch her during her next presentation… I don’t want to give all her insightful tips away on here… then you miss out on her fantastic speaking presence! Thanks Marilyn!

Although I missed Ben and Hannah Morgan‘s raved-about presentation, I look forward to Summit 2013 in Atlanta where I will attend Empowering the Introvert Within: Becoming an Outstanding Leader!Other’s who attended their previous presentations wrote about it, like New Balancing Act, Jamie. You could always check out the Bulletproofing your career online’s website, too for ideas about their fantastic presentation style that I know can only come through better, if that’s even possible, in this presentation!

TOOLS! Boy did I get tips on some fancy tech-tools that I had not yet utilized… and think you should definitely try them!

David Caruso suggested a fantastic metrics tool from the government, go.usa.gov. If you are into metrics, especially on Twitter, check this one out. It’s a great way to track the traffic you are creating for an organization, or yourself!

Doc to help is a neat tool that my dear friend Nivi won in a raffle. I plan to soon ask to try it out myself on her computer! It is a tool that helps making sharing, or publishing, information on a variety of outlets (desktops, web, mobile, & print) so easy!

In essence, I got so much out of Spectrum 13 that I could continue on for hours, but will leave it to this simple 5-point post for now. I cannot wait until next year, and hope to be even more involved in the conference – and urge you, if you are in the area, or not, to check it out in 2014!

A special thank you, as well, to the not specifically mentioned, but those that inspired some of the great thoughts and insights I’ve either written about or utilized since then… Thank you Anna Parker-Richards, Wendy Ross, Alan Houser (Keynote), and all of the lovely STC Rochester 2013 Spectrum presenters, attendees, sponsors, friends, and volunteer’s for all of your help, inspiration, and guidance!

Everyone does it, so I will too. Not this year! I had a realization on New Year’s Eve eve (December 30th) that New Year’s resolutions are pretty much meant to be broken – so 2013 was my year not to make any!

Of course in the past I had tried them all; weight loss, my vow to be a nicer person (whatever that means), visit relatives more often, study harder, and the works. They always worked for a while until I got bored of them. Sometimes they stuck – I always visited my family but the ones closer got the most visits for obvious reasons. It was easier!

But this year I proclaimed the revelation year for no New Year’s Resolutions.

Instead, when I am ¡inspired! about something, or have a great revelation about anything in life, I will make a Chyna’s-olution on the topic to better myself, my family, or the world around me.

More to come on this… in the mean time make your own <insert name>-olution’s as they occur! 🙂

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Masters Thesis Completion & Grandpa’s would-be 100th Birthday!

The Submission, Defense, and acceptance of my M.S. thesis to be presented at the 100th anniversary of NCA.April 24th, 2014

The big day is here! Today marks the would-be 100th birthday of my Grandfather who passed away in 2012. He saw my graduation pictures when I "walked" in May 2012 for my Masters degree, but passed away before I officially completed. After some major life changes, I was sidetracked. This is something he would be so proud of, and so it will be completed, presented (defended), and submitted for acceptance to the National Communication Association's 100th Anniversary Conference by his would-be 100th birthday! #Motivation